Seeing Red
by sei-hikaru
Summary: Red in a modern setting, a pre-pubescent teenager who meets a wolf and a Pan on the way to Grandma's house.


**Seeing Red**

A slightly screwed up, modern version of 'Little Red Riding Hood'. Other characters also show up, but they don't belong to me, they belong to their author. I wrote this in one go for my Literature for Children and Adolescents class and I quite liked it. If you do too, let me know. :-D (hint hint)

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Little Red Riding Hood, or Red (for short) stormed out of her small cottage house, ignoring her mother's angry shouts.

"Red Riding Hood, get back here and apologize!" Was the last bit that she heard before she tuned out of her mother's words.

Red would be turning 13 in the summer and she couldn't wait for that day to come. Honestly, she felt as if she was twelve going on two at the rate her mother was treating her. 'Go to grandma's house!' 'Send her cookies!' 'Why don't you go visit her anymore?' 'What's more important than family?'

Red rolled her eyes at that last thought.

To her, there were plenty of other things more important than family. Boys, for instance, were becoming a really big part of her life. She didn't know how she ever lived without them. Her father was always gone and she had always felt that her mother was raising her single-handedly. There were hardly any boys living around her grandma's house and those that were available were all wolves.

Red rolled her eyes again when she remembered what her mother had said.

'Don't speak to strangers, especially those wolves around!'

Her mother was incessantly trying to keep her away from the opposite sex. It wasn't as if she was stupid. She knew what those boys were capable of. Sweet words and sharp teeth. Red rolled her eyes, feeling cooler every time she did so.

She fixed her red hood, wondering at the length of her dress. She would've had it a bit higher up her legs but her mother had stopped that too. Red sighed and wished her mother would allow her to dress how she liked. She looked at her basket filled with cookies and sighed again – she hated cookies. Nobody cool ate cookies. Everyone who was cool sighed a lot – like they had the world on their shoulders or something like that.

"Hello there."

The deep baritone voice rumbled through the air, a hint of malice twined with sugar. Red looked up from her reverie and connected the voice with a tall stranger, long locks with a smirk that clearly read 'trouble'. Problem was, Red was incredibly attracted to trouble.

"Hello." She replied but didn't stop to chat, knowing he would follow her as she moved along.

"Where are you going all dressed up with a gift in hand?" He asked, falling into stride with her.

"My grandma's house." Red answered promptly, feeling particularly rebellious at talking to this dangerous stranger. "But you're not following me there."

"Oh no?" The stranger quirked up an eyebrow, a wolfish smile creeping onto his lips. "Then tell me, what will I do?"

"You will leave me alone, because I know you're trouble." Red glanced up and cast him her best flirtatious grin. "And I'm not supposed to get into trouble."

He took in her words, wondering at their promise or threat.

"You are courting mischief, young lady."

"Are you asking or making a statement?" Red grinned again and stopped in her tracks. "What kind of a wolf are you?"

The stranger grinned, showing his perfectly sharp canines.

"The type that have girls like you for breakfast."

Red laughed and held out her basket.

"I beg to differ Mr. Wolf, you see, I'm quite grown up so I can't give you little girls for breakfast. But if you would, have a cookie."

He shook his head, still grinning.

"I'll have to pass but I will take up on that offer another time." He turned away from her and waved as he walked off, "Have a safe journey to your grandma's, little girl. Until then!"

Red felt slightly disappointed that he wouldn't be keeping her company. It would be a rather long way before she reached her grandma's house. Sighing and kicking the dust on the road, she continued her trek.

She was almost there when she saw her fellow friend, Peter Pan – the boy who never ever wanted to grow up. Well, she thought that was rather silly of him since everyone wanted to grow up, but she continued to treat him well partly because she thought he was pretty cute. Peter grinned when he saw her, waving enthusiastically and running up to her. Red could never understand his infinite load of energy.

"Red! Off to grandma's house?" That was Peter, never beating about the bush.

"Yes, mother wanted me to send her cookies." Red rolled her eyes. "I'm sure if she had wanted to see me, she would've told me so."

"Mind if I join? The boys have all gone on their own adventure and I was getting bored. There was no one around town today." Peter looked momentarily put out, as if being bored was a tragedy.

For Red, being bored signified coolness but she shrugged off the thought and allowed him to join her.

"Sure. You might actually make the trip a little less dull." Red smiled.

"My mission in life." Peter grinned again and casually placed an arm around her shoulders, continuing conversation as if they were the best of friends. "Any new stories to tell?"

Red was distracted by his arm hanging off her shoulders and wondered how to act natural when she had to come up with an answer quickly.

"Uh--," Red quickly tried to think of something to say. "Besides mother troubles, not really."

"Mother troubles?" Peter looked wistfully away, his arm still on her shoulder, "When you've got no mom, you'd trade that for mother troubles any time."

"You can have mine then." Red promptly answered.

Peter chuckled and half-hugged her (he was only using the arm that was around her shoulder to pull her momentarily close) before shaking his head.

"Then again, your mom's some kind of a dragon. I'd rather deal with the matron any day."

Red wasn't sure why his arm was lingering on her for so long. It wasn't as if she minded, it was more that he didn't seem to care that it was on her in the first place. Did he go about walking around like this with every other girl? Probably that was why Goldilocks had that knowing grin on her face – she knew Red had a crush on Peter when she was younger.

"Red? Your face is all funny, anything wrong?" Peter turned her to him, looking worriedly down at her face.

Red felt her face burn and wished she had more experience with handling boys. This was why she despised her mother so much. If she had allowed her to have more freedom, maybe she would know what to do in this type of situation. Instead, she was floundering about like an idiot and he thought that there was something wrong with her.

"Nothing," Red brushed off his hands and nodded to no one in particular. "Maybe I'm just tired from all that walking. Let's hurry, the sooner we get this done the better."

Their journey was pretty much uneventful after that and Red wondered at the way her heartbeat seemed eager to break out of her ribcage. She was relieved when she saw her grandma's house come into view and wondered at her elation.

"Grandma? You here?" Red pushed her way through the door, knowing how her grandma never liked locking it.

"Come on in!"

Red and Peter made their way in and to Red's surprise, she saw the wolfish stranger having tea with her grandma. Peter had a sudden grip on her shoulder and when she looked up at him, she saw that he was scowling.

"Well hello, little lady," his rich voice penetrated the air and stole her attention. "You brought a friend."

"Red," Peter spoke through gritted teeth, "You know this person?"

Red felt slightly unbalanced, she wasn't sure how she was supposed to assess the situation. The stranger had a prickly look to him that pronounced something sinister and Peter looked as if he was snarling.

"Red, is something wrong?" Her grandma looked as confused as she was.

"I'm not sure." Red hesitated before looking at Peter. "I met him before I ran into you. Why?"

Peter narrowed his brows at the stranger.

"You'd better leave now. Don't ever come near these parts again. I'll report you and have the officials make sure you won't get to even breathe the same air as we do."

"Rather feisty fellow." The stranger smirked in Red's direction. "You really have a taste for mischief, young lady."

"I told you to leave now." Peter growled out his words.

"...But at least, this one has your best interest at heart." The stranger gave a sly smile and bowed deeply. "It seems as if I'll have to take up on your offer very much later, young lady."

He was gone before Red could register what was happening.

Peter turned to Red's confused grandmother and smiled apologetically.

"Ma'am, would you mind if I steal Red for a moment?"

"No, Peter, it's fine." Red's grandma rose to take the basket from her, "I'll have these set out for you two when you're done."

"Thank you, ma'am."

Peter nudged Red outside and gave her a stern look. Red didn't like the look – it was identical to the one her mother wore before she stormed out of her house earlier.

"Do you know who that man was?" Peter demanded.

"No." Red furrowed her own brows, glaring back at Peter.

"That was James Hook, a notorious pirate and child kidnapper!" Peter looked murderous. "If I hadn't been there, you would have walked your own plank!"

"He looked decent enough." Red said stubbornly. She did not appreciate his tone of voice nor his high-handedness in this matter. "How do you know him?"

Peter shook his head,

"That's besides the point! Red, you've got to stop getting yourself into trouble!"

"I wouldn't have been in trouble, Peter, I can take care of myself." Red continued to glare at him. "What's this to you anyway, I'm fine and you're fine and everyone's fine. I won't go near him again, OK? Next time I see him, I'll scream. Is that what you want me to do?"

"Better than inviting him to tea with your grandma!" Peter yelled back.

"I did not invite him to tea!" Red looked incredulous. "Stop yelling at me!"

"I can't help it! You've got no idea how worried I was!" Peter looked as if he was trying to tear out his hair. "You should start thinking about people who care about you!"

"What, like you?" Red yelled back.

"For Pete's sake, yes!"

And then there was silence.

Red wasn't sure what she had heard and from the look on Peter's face it looked as if he wasn't sure of what he'd said either. The silence became an awkward curtain that hung between them, heavy and thick. Red realized something needed to be said but wasn't sure how to go about it. She felt as if this could be her moment of crossing that line into growing up and learning more about boys but she wasn't sure if she knew what she was doing. It was all foreign land to her and it was driving her crazy.

Her train of thoughts derailed and plummeted down a cliff when Peter took a hasty step forward and planted a quick peck on her lips. The kiss was over before it began and Red was unsure if it even happened.

Peter looked determined and his face was set as he suddenly grinned and nodded towards her grandma's door.

"I'm hungry, let's go have some cookies."

Without waiting for her, he headed inside and out of her sight.

Her fingers grazed her lips for a moment before Red shook her head out of the clouds she had surrounded herself in. Feeling incredibly grown-up and slightly wiser, Red walked inside after Peter, a slight skip to her steps.

Goldilocks could eat her heart out.

-the end-


End file.
